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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28893036">Fair Weather, Friends</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/calico_fiction/pseuds/calico_fiction'>calico_fiction</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>little cuts [25]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Food Porn, Gen, Loki Lives (Marvel), Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, POV Outsider, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 09:21:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>820</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28893036</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/calico_fiction/pseuds/calico_fiction</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Avengers overhear an altercation between the brothers at Thor's birthday party.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bruce Banner &amp; Avengers Team, Loki &amp; Thor (Marvel)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>little cuts [25]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1121556</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>72</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Fair Weather, Friends</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Takes place directly after <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28416309">And Many More</a>.</p><p>this WAS going to be written on my phone at three a.m. but then THE PAGE REFRESHED so now it is being written on my laptop at FOUR a.m. I am accepting thoughts &amp; prayers at this time thank you.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bruce is making love to his <em>n</em>th slice of layered birthday cake. It's been a rare privilege to discover that most extraterrestrial sustenance is surprisingly inoffensive to a human palate, but Bruce has missed earth food more than almost anything. Tony's number one priority being a cheeseburger after enduring an extended assassination attempt makes a lot more sense now, and Bruce had already gotten the gist of it back then.</p><p>The cake is moist and fluffy, gluten free but you'd never guess it from the texture. The frosting is blueberry flavored and the top layer is dusted liberally with silver sprinkles. Bruce thinks he could have eaten the whole fourteen inches of it by himself if he'd been given the chance. He closes his eyes to savor a bite, the light flavor of the cake and the sweet-tart frosting melting together in his mouth, heavenly-</p><p>Beside him, Natasha's elbow twitches and brushes lightly into his. If it were anyone else Bruce wouldn't even have noticed, but for her that's practically jumping a foot in the air. So Bruce drags himself back from Cake'halla to see what startled her.</p><p>Sitting around the sleek bar of one of the Compound's communal spaces are the original six of them minus Thor, all in various states of party-going. Clint has a paper birthday hat perched on his head and a noisemaker tucked behind his ear. Steve has (what Loki had claimed to be) a traditional Viking design painted on his face, smearing away underneath his eyes. Close beside him is Tony, sipping on sparkling apple cider, and with a flaking wolf sitting in his beard and howling up at his eye. Bruce can't find anything to be concerned about, but the other four are all casting each other uneasy glances. Bruce wishes he could look to Val for her, uh, <em>unique</em> brand of tale telling, but she claimed for this party and the last one that with Thor and Loki gone she and Heimdall needed to remain in Asgard - though somehow that hadn't been true for the first two. (No doubt this drawn-out celebration is not near as 'traditional' as Loki had alleged.) Instead Bruce looks to Steve, the most forthright of all of them here.</p><p>But instead of offering up some explanation, Steve hedges, "Should we...?"</p><p>"Should we... what?" Bruce asks, no less confused and perhaps more so. "About what?"</p><p>"Do-" Bruce's head snaps around. It's almost as unusual for Tony to stutter as it is for Nat to flinch (<em>almost</em>). "Do you not hear that?" He gestures vaguely toward the tall glass sliding doors that lead onto the patio space and then out to the sweeping back grounds. Obligingly, Bruce tilts his head in that direction and listens.</p><p>There's just the bone-shakingly loud thrum-boom of thunder too close, the hair-raising buzz of lightning, and an enraged shriek; then the crackle and hiss of show-boaty magic and a mighty bellow. But Thor and Loki are out there so that's all to be expected. Bruce strains his ears, but he can't hear anything else over the ruckus.</p><p>"Sorry," he says sheepishly, and reminds them with a shrug: "Unenhanced, technically. I'm not catching it."</p><p>"Fuck you, <em>unenhanced</em>," Clint squawks, shooting up out of his relaxed state. His noisemaker falls into his lap and his party hat slides to one side of his head. "I'm Deaf! I could hear that shit from the farm!"</p><p>It takes Bruce a moment. But then he realizes, not for the first time and not for the last, that he's been hanging around superhuman aliens and their superhuman alien (no blood relation) siblings for far too long.</p><p>"Oh, you mean that," he sighs, throwing his own half-hearted gesture out toward the lawn where Loki and Thor are- doing whatever Loki and Thor are doing. "That's normal." Bruce returns to his cake. He's a little bit miffed to have been interrupted, now that he knows it was for nothing.</p><p>"That's," repeats Steve, his voice monotone. "Normal."</p><p>"Mm-hm," Bruce hums around a new mouthful, his eyelashes fluttering as the frosting hits his tongue. Blueberries never were his favorite fruit, before, but who knows now. He's been to space, set foot on at least three different planets, all of them in different galaxies. His outlook on life has changed, and probably so has the geography of his tongue. The only scientific solution is to try a piece of every single Terran fruit and rate them on the same multifaceted scale. But first he'll finish this cake. Bruce only hears it in the background of his mind when Clint lets out a low whistle.</p><p>"And I thought Barney and I had fights," he mutters. He leans back on his hand and straightens his party hat. Bruce doesn't bother to correct him. He didn't have to miss being pedantic aboard the Statesman. Loki is good for <em>some</em> things.</p><p>Besides. Right now, the cake takes precedence.</p>
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